What Was Churchill's Fulneral Like?

[jake-the-peg]

We must have quite a few members who remember this

Was there as much controversy as there is now with MT's fulneral?

In some quarters he was a contraversial figure - Gallipoli, botched return to the gold standard, troops and miners

Booed in some places campaigning after the war when people wanted 'a land fit for heroes' not 'back to the 30s'

Television was more highly censored for 'appropriateness' then but what did people say in the streets and pubs - did everybody forget the controversies and just concentrate on those 6 war years?

[Mamyalynne]

.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZxBfrO_Cqo8

[FredPuli43]

I remember it. It was in black and white! No, there was no dissent shown. Churchill was revered as the great war leader and remembered only for that, and with good reason. There was no need for any censorship.

[VHG]

Funnily enough Churchill did not become PM until after the war had started, in May 1940, after Chamberlain resigned. He was already 65 years old.

And it seems his election as PM was not that popular at the time.

I think if he had died aged 64 he would have been remembered as a somewhat failed politician.

[sandyRoe]

I remember the operators of the cranes along the Thames dipped their jibs as his funeral barge passed. Not many cranes in Canary Wharf to do that now.

[Mamyalynne]

That is on the end of that short video Sandy - I found that quite moving.

[Brenden]

I remember the playing of Handels Largo - it seemed so fitting at the time.

[Old_Geezer]

I don't recall controversy but there again I wasn't an adult at the time so may have missed it. I suspect not though. He led us through the war and that was the reason for the respect gained.

[DTCwordfan]

Who was Prime Minister seeing off the docks and railways,.....yes one Harold Wilson, Labour Party.

How apropos.

[Brenden]

sush DTC, some will not want to read or remember that.

[DJHawkes]

the barge is the bit i remember the most, it was a cold miserable day but of course we watched it in black and white. i was 10 years old and i assume we had been at school and watched it on the news but maybe we had a day off?

He had been a soldier too and a decorated one at that and so his military style state funeral was highly appropriate

[DTCwordfan]

A soldier too? No he was a military journo in the Boer War.

Yes, he was Lord of the Admiralty but that was a political appointment.

[sandyRoe]

Did he not serve in WW1 after the Gallipoli fiasco?

[sandyRoe]

http://unnamedharald.hubpages.com/hub/Winston-Churchill-in-the-Trenches

[DTCwordfan]

Sorry - yes he was a Hussar and saw active service in Cuba and Sudan, as well as India but that was living the life of Riley. Then he held honorary positions....

[sir.prize]

DTC - check your facts. Churchill was a serving officer in the British Army. He also saw active army service on the Western Front as commander of the 6th Battalion of the Royal Scots Fusiliers. Additionally he was also captured in South Africa, imprisoned and subsequently escaped.

[DTCwordfan]

What have I just written 5 minutes before sir-p?

[sir.prize]

So active service, captured, imprisoned in POW Camp was living the life of Riley?

Typical Thatcher thinking.

[vulcan42]

I was in the RAF at the time and lined the route on Ludgate hill. the Two main things I remember were the bitter cold and the complete silence of the huge crown. We knew hundreds of people were standing behind us but you couldn't hear a thing, not even a cough, it was eerie. I felt sorry for the Guardsmen having to carry the lead lined coffin into St Paul's Cathedral.

[jake-the-peg]

So you'd have been old enough to know what people thought of him then Vulcan.

Did everybody just remember him for the war years?

[McMouse]

I remember Churchill's funeral but was disappointed not to be selected to be part of the military contingent. There were huge numbers of volunteers.